


And I said please, please don't insist

by animenutcase



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Other, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-08 07:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10381485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animenutcase/pseuds/animenutcase
Summary: "I really don't know how I went from having a few drinks to waging war against ghosts in my apartment but here we are"





	

Arvis despised the smell of tequila, and half the time the taste didn't even let him forget.

The scent was burned into his mind, of the day he stumbled upon Mother's maid tearing out of his father's room in tears while his father shouted after her.

When Mother insisted that the maid be allowed to stay despite her pregnancy, Arvis's father brought it out again and spent the whole night drinking himself into a stupor.

The bottles went untouched in the cellar for nearly a decade after Duke Victor's death. The first time Arvis allowed himself to even go near one of the damned things was the day the maid died.

It was around that time one of the new recruits in the Roten Ritter, a promising young woman named Aida, began hanging around the castle. She came to him one night shortly after the funeral and asked where his brother was.

"Visiting his mother's family." He replied. He hadn't been drinking that much, but he was afraid to be alone with someone nonetheless. "She was raised by her grandparents, but only her grandmother remains."

She asked if he was lonely. Arvis remembered asking her to leave, but the woman refused to budge. Arvis couldn't remember the argument that ensued, only that when he woke the next morning, his head hurt and Aida was lying next to him.

She insisted that he hadn't forced her, but fear plagued him.

He didn't see her again until a year later. He was terrified of asking, and Aida never volunteered any information on what went on during that year.

Even when that damned Manfroy reappeared, Arvis swore that he'd never touch the bottle again, no matter how tempting it was.

Unfortunately, as the years passed, drinking alone in private became a common activity.

The first time was after the prince's death. The second came after the Battle of Belhalla. The third came after visiting the Spirit Forest of Verdane. After that, Arvis was forced confront the fact that he had fallen completely off the wagon.

Arvis thought of Azel frequently. His whereabouts after Belhalla were unknown. There were rumors that his wife was in Isaach, but Arvis didn't even know if that was true. He had sworn to Manfroy that he would kill him himself if anything ever happened to Azel, and even up to the current year Manfroy insisted that his brother was alive, just unwilling to see him.

It hurt to think he'd damaged his relationship with Azel beyond repair. He had been forced to act as an authority figure for Azel practically since his birth, but Arvis often wished that their relationship was more like the one Lady Ethlyn of Chalphy had with her brother.

He often tried to imagine what his brother looked like now. He had inherited their father's red hair, but he miraculously took more after his mother. Had he grown up to be strong and handsome, as his mother had been innocent and beautiful? Had his face been disfigured by the flames of Meteor? Regardless, every time Arvis imagined Azel's face, it always turned into a grimace of disgust.

Though he didn't have any direct involvement, the death of the prince weighed heavily on him. Meeting Deirdre helped somewhat, but it was always there in the back of his mind. Even when he learned that the prince had indeed been having an affair with Mother, he could only think of how happy Mother was whenever he came to visit. If he discouraged the prince from visiting, would that have made a difference? Would Mother have remained with him? Perhaps, but that would have meant that Deirdre wouldn't exist.

There were days when Arvis wondered what their life would have been like had the king not recognized the mark of Saint Heim on her forehead. Would they have been able to simply live as husband and wife, with no fear of their son bringing the destruction of Grannvale?

Arvis laughed bitterly. Of course not. He and Deirdre had both been nothing more than pawns. Their paths had been set from the beginning, and their only purpose had been to produce Julius.

He often imagined how repulsed she'd be if she learned the truth.

"Deep down you must have known!" He imagined her saying. "I look too much like Mother for it to be a coincidence!"

But the face that appeared before Arvis the most was his.

"It's been awhile, hasn't it, Duke Arvis?" The pleasant, chatty voice that reminded Arvis of a running river rang in his ears once more. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, the traitorous Sigurd of Chalphy was sitting before him, smiling as though he were greeting an old friend, but there seemed to be an edge to it.

"Calling me treacherous when you're the one who framed me?" Sigurd's smile twisted into a sneer that didn't suit his face. "You're being rather cold, don't you think?"  
"What do you want today, Sigurd?" Arvis groaned.  
"It's not really a matter of what "I" want, Arvis." Sigurd scoffed. "I'm here to do the thing I've spent the past several years doing to you."

Arvis blinked, and at that moment, Sigurd appeared to be on fire, with his flesh turning black and chipping away.

"I'm only here to torment you." He said cheerfully.

Arvis swallowed his drink, and demanded that Sigurd leave.

"Aww, but I just got here!" Sigurd stood up, and Arvis realized that his face was back to normal. "And I know how much you _love_ when I touch you!"

Arvis blinked again and Sigurd was right in front him.

"After all, it's not like you touched our wife much while you were married." He snickered. "The last time you actually fucked her was how you got the twins."  
"That was..."  
"Because every time you tried to go to bed with her after Belhalla, you saw _me_."

Sigurd wrapped his hands around Arvis's throat. His hands seemed to be freezing.

"Hey, Arvis..." He asked as he began to squeeze. "How come you're still alive?"

Arvis gagged, and Sigurd leaned in closer.

"Didn't you once tell Manfroy that you wouldn't let anything come between you and Deirdre? And yet, here you are, alive while she's dead." Sigurd continued. "Not only that, but your son has turned into a monster, and your daughter is probably dead. Why haven't you died yet?"

He released his grip and Arvis gasped, relishing the chance to breathe again.

"I am... the Emperor of Grannvale. I have an obli-obligation to... make things right."  
"And what a great job you've done so far!" Sigurd didn't sound impressed. "You've allowed the Loptyr Sect to run wild, and now you've even authorised the child hunts! Truly you are a good ruler!"

He clapped his hands, and Arvis demanded that he be silent.

"Or what?" Sigurd leered at him. "You can't even control your own son. Great parenting, Arvis! At least I have the excuse of being dead. Speaking of which..."

Sigurd looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I wonder how my son -your nephew- is doing?"

The choice of words was deliberate. That was another thing Sigurd constantly brought up whenever this happened: That there was a child out there who was related to both of them by blood.

"Why, it's almost like we have a child of our own!" Sigurd laughed. "And it's all thanks to your dearly departed mother fucking Prince Kurth, then fucking off."

Arvis grabbed the empty glass, but Sigurd grabbed his wrist and held it in place.

"You can tell your kids whatever you want." Sigurd's face and voice were as cold as his skin. "You can convince your son that the woman who pushed you out and the woman who brought Deirdre into this world are two different people, but to convince your son that Deirdre never loved anyone before meeting you? That's cruel, even for you."

"I won't let my wife or my mother be sullied in my children's eyes by rumors of extramarital affairs!" Arvis hissed, but that only seemed to make Sigurd angry.  
"You have a lot of nerve, suggesting that my son is the product of an extramarital affair when you _knew_ that I had gotten married at Evans. I even mentioned her name in the letter."

It was true. Grannvale required members of its duchies to keep Belhalla notified when they got married or had children. As someone who bore a Brand, Sigurd in particular was expected to keep the king notified. Arvis had known that Sigurd had married a woman named Deirdre, but they never received word of the birth of a child. Arvis had a suspicion that Manfroy had made sure that the letter didn't arrive.

"As for your mother, the proof of her infidelity is right here in Belhalla! Your mother was the only person in her generation who carried the blood of Saint Maira in the entire world! She passed it down to you, then vanished. Eventually, you married Deirdre, and your son somehow came out as the next vessel for Loptyr! Now how could that be if you were the only one who inherited Saint Maira's blood, and your mother was the only possible person capable of passing it down?

"I'm truly amazed that such a person exists that is capable of acknowledging in his mind that he married his own sister, but refuses to acknowledge that it only happened because his cowardly mother had an affair and ran away."  
"My mother knew that she had broken her clan laws by bearing more than one child!"  
"I hate to break it to you, Arvis, but she broke them the moment she left the forest." Sigurd released his grip on Arvis's wrist, but his expression did not change. "She accepted your father's proposal despite knowing what he was like, and had you. Eventually, she started her affair with the prince, and got pregnant. Your father committed suicide, and, rather than own up to the affair and explain her reasons, she chose to run away, leaving you with nothing but an infant half-brother, a maid, and the weight of Velthomer on your shoulders."

Arvis slapped him, but he knew in his heart that Sigurd's words had shaken him.

"When you were ten, Manfroy appeared and revealed that he knew you inherited the blood of Saint Maira. You were still a child and you were scared, so you agreed to work with him." Strangely, Sigurd's usually harsh and mocking voice turned oddly gentle for a moment. "Then he disappeared for several years, but kept in touch to make sure you knew he was still watching. When you were seventeen, Azel's mother died. You hadn't been close to any women besides her because you were afraid you'd turn out like your father. You weren't even entirely sure you were all that interested in women."  
"Stop." Arvis protested.

"Then you started drinking, and when you woke up one morning, you discovered that you'd slept with Aida, and despite her insistence that you hadn't forced her, you were always afraid that you had, and when you found out she had a son a few years later, you were terrified and never got up the nerve to ask her if he was yours, because, like your mother, you're a coward. You'll probably never know now, since she was "killed in action" several years ago, but you suspect that Manfroy was involved."  
"Stop it."

"Then Azel left to rescue Lady Adean, and you were all alone again. Granted, it's not like you and Azel were all that close in the first place." Sigurd ignored him and kept speaking. "Eventually, Manfroy introduced you to Deirdre, and you fell in love with her at first sight. Probably because she looked like your mother."  
"Please stop it." Arvis was suddenly grateful that he hadn't thrown the glass as he reached for the bottle.

"You took her to the king and learned that she was the prince's long lost daughter. Really, you _knew_ there were rumors that your mother's affair had been with the prince, but I suppose you were in _that_ much denial." Sigurd sighed as Arvis poured another drink. "You got married, and started hearing rumors that my wife went missing in Agustria right around the same time you met Deirdre. And you got so scared that she'd leave you all alone, that you started keeping tabs on my army, me in particular."

Sigurd smirked at Arvis, who looked away without answering, taking a sip of his drink as he did.

"But even after you got married, it took an astonishingly long time for you to take her to bed. Were you trying to ease her into married life? Or were you just afraid you wouldn't be able to get it up if you were sober?" Sigurd leered at him. "But eventually you managed to consummate the marriage (after a few drinks, mind you) just in time to meet us as we arrived. You played along with welcoming us back before raising the curtain. Then you did something strange."  
"Sigurd-" Arvis tried to stop him, but Sigurd cut him off by raising his hand and cupping Arvis's cheek, stroking it almost gently.

"Do you remember? You did it just like this." Sigurd asked. "I doubt that was all you wanted to do, though. In fact, if there hadn't been a crowd of people, if we'd been alone, I suspect you would have done this."

Sigurd moved closer to Arvis, but just as their lips were about to touch, Arvis pulled away and slapped him again.

"That might be _your_ preference, but don't insinuate that I have the-"  
"Oh, come off it." Sigurd sighed again, sounding annoyed and disgusted. "I have never done anything that you didn't want. Every time I appear before you, you make me out to be some cruel man making passes at you when you didn't know a thing about me when I was alive. On the flip side, I know things about you that I couldn't have possibly known."  
"What are you implying?" Arvis demanded, but Sigurd merely sighed and gave him another distasteful look.

"Don't ask me." He scoffed. "You figure it out."

And he was gone.

It was par the course for his visits from Sigurd. Get drunk, see Sigurd, fall asleep at some point, then wake up with a killer headache and pretend that his arousal from moving around in bed.

The stress was clearly getting to him, he decided. Arvis knew that the liberation army was getting closer and it was only a matter of time before they reached Grannvale. Julius was no longer even pretending to be obedient. The child hunts were running rampant and he'd allowed himself to be cowed into approving them. Everything he'd tried to achieve, he'd failed at.

Arvis stood and locked the door, not wanting to risk anyone walking in. He pulled a case from under the bed and opened it, revealing the divine sword Tyrfing. He had personally pulled it off of Sigurd's charred corpse, and he had never let it get far from him since then. He'd even taken it with him to the Spirit Forest. It was like an unseen force was making it cling to him. Or perhaps Arvis was the one clinging to it. He wasn't sure, nor did he care.

"Do you want me to take my own life with this sword, Sigurd?" He asked quietly. "I took yours with the Valflame, therefore I should die by the Tyrfing. Is that what you're trying to tell me!?"

Arvis laughed, loud and bitter.

"Because I've considered it! Oh, I've thought about it many times!" He choked out. "But every time I've held it directly in my hands, it's become unbearably heavy! It's almost as though it rejects anyone but you!"

He laughed again, no longer caring if the noise woke any of the servants. He could not stop until he felt tears sting his eyes as he stared down at the sword.

"What is it that you want from me?" He whispered. "You have _her_. Your son will soon bring down the Empire. Mine is gone, and so is my daughter. Just what more is it that you want from me!?"

He received no answer.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: When I first started writing this, I did not intend to turn Arvis into an alcoholic. It just sorta happened. Arvis/Sigurd is a guilty pleasure of mine.


End file.
